Latest news with #XMM-Newton
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This supermassive black hole is eating way too quickly — and 'burping' at near-light speeds
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have witnessed a distant supermassive black hole devouring its surrounding matter so rapidly that it is "burping" out excess mass at nearly a third of the speed of light. The discovery was made when researchers studied the supermassive-black-hole-powered Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) of a Seyfert galaxy located about 1.2 billion light-years away. The black hole, designated PG1211+143, has a mass around 40 million times that of the sun and powers a bright quasar. This made it a prime target for astronomers seeking to understand how supermassive black holes grow by feeding on, or "accreting," matter. The team examined the black hole using the European Space Agency (ESA) X-ray spacecraft XMM-Newton, finding an influx of matter equivalent to the mass of 10 Earths flowing to the object over a period of just five weeks. The matter falling around the black hole settles into a flattened cloud of gas and dust called an accretion disk, from which material is fed to the central black hole. But even this monstrous black hole can't stomach so much matter, leading to some serious indigestion in the form of outflows travelling at around 0.27 times the speed of light. That's about 181 million miles per hour, or 100,000 times the top speed of a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter. These outflows followed the black hole's inflow of matter with a delay of a few days, heating matter around the AGN to temperatures of several million degrees. This generated radiation pressure that pushed excess matter away from the central region of PG1211+143. Because stars form in galaxies from excesses of cold, dense gas, these high-speed outflows could be starving PG1211+143's surrounding space of the building blocks for new stars, both by heating gas and dust and by pushing that material away. That means studying these high-speed outflows from this black hole could help scientists to discover how black hole eruptions transform galaxies from hubs of star birth to a more quiescent existence. Related Stories: — Scientist image 3-million-light-year-long 'cosmic web' ensnaring 2 galaxies for 1st time — 'Superhighways' connecting the cosmic web could unlock secrets about dark matter — How does the Cosmic Web connect Taylor Swift and the last line of your 'celestial address?'years "Establishing the direct causal link between massive, transient inflow and the resulting outflow offers the fascinating prospect of watching a supermassive black hole grow by regular monitoring of the hot, relativistic winds associated with the accretion of new matter," team leader Ken Pounds from the University of Leicester said in a team's research was published on June 10 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)
New York Post
28-06-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Unprecedented view of our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy revealed
A new composite image of the Andromeda Galaxy is offering an unprecedented view of our closest spiral galactic neighbor. Composed by NASA and international space partners, the image combines data from more than a dozen telescopes and ground-based observatories. Advertisement Located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, Andromeda, which is also known as Messier 31m has been a focus of the space community for more than a century, with early observations dating back to at least 1923 by astronomer Edwin Hubble. A key focus of ongoing studies has been the galaxy's evolution and structure, which shares many similar features with our own Milky Way. The new imagery weaves together data from X-rays captured by NASA's Chandra telescope, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton spacecraft and several other missions to create a unique view of the galaxy's features. 'Each type of light reveals new information about this close galactic relative to the Milky Way. For example, Chandra's X-rays reveal the high-energy radiation around the supermassive black hole at the center of M31 as well as many other smaller compact and dense objects strewn across the galaxy,' NASA stated. Advertisement 3 The Andromeda galaxy is located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. FOX Weather 3 On a clear night, some stars of the galaxy can be seen from Earth. FOX Weather Unlike the Milky Way, which is difficult to observe from within due to dust, gas and Earth's position inside it, Andromeda can be studied from a great distance, offering astronomers a more complete and unobstructed view. Despite the insights revealed by this image, many mysteries remain about the spiral galaxy, including the composition of invisible dark matter, how it interacts with other cosmic structures and how many stars and planets it truly contains. Advertisement Andromeda is believed to contain hundreds of billions of stars, leading scientists to theorize that it could also host trillions of planets. 3 A key focus of ongoing studies has been the galaxy's evolution and structure, which shares many similar features with our own Milky Way. FOX Weather Even with an army of advanced space technology available today, no telescope is powerful enough to overcome the vast distance and identify a single planet, or, for that matter, even a star, in detail within Andromeda. Advertisement NASA says its upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is among several missions that will help continue to shed light on galaxies like M31. Named after the agency's first chief astronomer, the high-tech observatory is expected to launch in 2027 and will feature a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Daily Record
24-06-2025
- Science
- Daily Record
Massive thread of hot gas found linking galaxies and it's 10 times the mass of the Milky Way
The thread could contain some of the Universe's 'missing' matter, addressing a decades-long mystery Astronomers have uncovered a colossal, searing-hot filament of gas linking four galaxy clusters in the Shapley Supercluster - a discovery that could finally solve the mystery of the Universe's missing matter. This giant thread, 10 times the mass of the Milky Way and stretching 23 million light-years, is one of the best confirmations yet that vast, faint filaments connect the Universe's largest structures in a cosmic web. Over one-third of the 'normal' matter in the local Universe - the visible stuff making up stars, planets, galaxies, life - is missing. It hasn't yet been seen, but it's needed to make our models of the cosmos work properly, NASA says. Said models suggest that this elusive matter might exist in long strings of gas, or filaments, bridging the densest pockets of space. "While we've spotted filaments before, it's tricky to make out their properties," said lead researcher Konstantinos Migkas of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. "They're faint, making it difficult to isolate their light from that of any galaxies, black holes, and other objects lying nearby. "For the first time, our results closely match what we see in our leading model of the cosmos - something that's not happened before. It seems that the simulations were right all along." Clocking in at over 10 million degrees, the filament contains around 10 times the mass of the Milky Way and connects four galaxy clusters - two on one end, two on the other. All are part of the Shapley Supercluster, a collection of more than 8000 galaxies that forms one of the most massive structures in the nearby Universe. The filament stretches diagonally away from us through the supercluster for 23 million light-years, the equivalent of traversing the Milky Way end to end around 230 times. The astronomers used the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and JAXA's Suzaku X-ray space telescopes to make the discovery. "Thanks to XMM-Newton we could identify and remove these cosmic contaminants, so we knew we were looking at the gas in the filament and nothing else," co-author Florian Pacaud of the University of Bonn, Germany, added. "Our approach was really successful, and reveals that the filament is exactly as we'd expect from our best large-scale simulations of the Universe." As well as unveiling a huge and previously unseen thread of matter running through the nearby cosmos, the finding shows how some of the densest and most extreme structures in the Universe - galaxy clusters - are connected over colossal distances. It also sheds light on the very nature of the 'cosmic web', the vast, invisible cobweb of filaments that underpins the structure of everything we see around us. "This research... reinforces our standard model of the cosmos and validates decades of simulations," Norbert Schartel, ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist, added. "It seems that the 'missing' matter may truly be lurking in hard-to-see threads woven across the Universe." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
NDTV
07-06-2025
- Science
- NDTV
Two Galaxy Clusters That Collided Previously Are All Set To Smash Again
Two galaxy clusters that previously collided are now heading for another round of cosmic headbutt, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have found. Located 2.8 billion light years from Earth, each of the two galaxy clusters contain thousands of galaxies, vast quantities of dark matter and superheated gas. The two colliding clusters, together known as PSZ2 G181, resemble an irregular violet peanut shell with bulbous ends linked by a tapered middle. A composite image of the cosmic event shows crescent-shaped structures surrounding the system. As per the astronomers, these are likely shock fronts, described as massive, sonic-boom disturbances, often located near a dense core remnant. The shock fronts created from the initial impact have since moved apart and are now about 11 million light-years away from each other - the widest separation ever recorded. This suggests just how massive and long-lasting the effects of galaxy collisions can be. "Bracketing the combined galaxy cluster, these shock fronts were caused by the initial collision about a billion years ago. They are currently separated by 11 million light-years," NASA stated. Despite their enormous distance, the galaxy clusters are gravitationally bound and slowly turning back for another high-speed impact. "Now, data from NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton is providing evidence that PSZ2 G181 is poised for another collision. Having a first pass at ramming each other, the two clusters have slowed down and begun heading back toward a second crash." As per Andra Stroe, the lead author of the study, the second encounter offers scientists the chance to observe a lower-mass system undergoing the kind of large-scale violence typically seen in more massive clusters. Additionally, the collision could provide more insights into the mysterious unseen substance known as dark matter, as well as the evolution of the universe.
India Today
06-06-2025
- Science
- India Today
Forget Trump vs Musk, two galaxies are about to collide in space
While Donald Trump and Elon Musk beef continues, there is something even bigger happening in the Chandra X-ray Observatory, along with other telescopes, has captured a rare cosmic event: two massive galaxy clusters that collided about a billion years ago are now on course to crash into each other system, known as PSZ2 G181, lies approximately 2.8 billion light-years from Galaxy clusters are among the largest structures in the universe, consisting of hundreds or thousands of galaxies, vast amounts of superheated gas, and invisible dark matter, all bound together by gravity. Photo: Nasa PSZ2 G181 is a lower-mass system compared to other known colliding clusters, making this event particularly unusual and valuable for radio observations by the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) in the Netherlands revealed bracket-shaped structures—likely shock fronts—on the outskirts of the shock fronts are similar to sonic booms created when jets break the sound barrier and are thought to have formed from the initial collision's disruption of that first impact, the shock fronts have traveled outward and are now separated by about 11 million light-years, the largest such separation ever composite images combine X-ray data from Nasa's Chandra (shown in purple) and ESA's XMM-Newton (blue) with LOFAR's radio data (red) and optical images from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). These observations reveal three shock fronts aligned along the collision axis, which scientists interpret as early signs of the clusters' impending second their initial pass, the two clusters slowed down and have begun moving back toward each other, setting the stage for another massive cosmic collision. Researchers are still determining the exact mass of each cluster, but the total mass is less than that of other colliding systems, making PSZ2 G181 an exceptional discovery, detailed in a series of papers led by Andra Stroe of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, offers a unique window into the dynamics of galaxy cluster collisions and the growth of large-scale cosmic structures.
